Lieutenant General Michael Flynn's military service culminated in being appointed Director of the DIA, the militarized version of the CIA. That career of military service has sadly begun an ignominious conclusion. Frankly, DIA has been the most competent intel agency of recent date and has avoided some of the political overtones in terms of decision-making and subsequent commentary a-la the FBI and to a lesser extent, the CIA.
In fact, Flynn is credited by many news outlets in being spot-on by warning about no drop-off in terrorism threats post Osama bin Laden's death and is credited with being correct about ISIL's continued rise, such as it was during 2012 and 2013.
He also called for security clearance revocations on account of somebody's email server, not the FBI who has supposedly had the lead in investigating all of that.
Furthermore, many news outlets critiqued America's intelligence agency missteps from "cooking the intel." Even the Washington Post and NY Times published op-ed criticism when it was reported that President Obama supposedly did not care for the reality on the ground reported to him. Reuters and Associated Press also contributed to the subject with several pieces back in 2015 and the very start of 2016.
Obama military appointees solid vs. civilian insolvency
The firing of generals was minor compared to some of the black-eyes that many agencies gave the Obama Administration.
Those scandals were a direct result of the head of the respective agency being in over their head. A lot of directors or administrators simply lacked management acumen leading to incompetence, ineptitude, and/or indifference. DIA Director Flynn was one of the few casualties due to his refusal to embellish hunky-dory intelligence reports to fit a certain narrative.
Additionally, then Director Flynn made no bones about his feelings of then President Obama's characterization of ISIL as the junior varsity squad and the failure to enforce the "red-line." Officially, he was dismissed prior to finishing out the standard DIA Director's term of 3 years due to mismanagement. That was a pretty weak argument when one considers the following:
- The embarrassing shenanigans on the part of the DEA in Columbia, equivalent to managerial incompetence-
- The worrisome breach of security on the White House grounds and being tipsy while on duty on the part of Secret Service, equivalent to managerial ineptitude-
- The well-documented activities at the IRS, equivalent to political indifference-
- The embarrassing environmental blight from the Colorado gold-mine debacle on the part of the EPA, equivalent to managerial ineptitude-
- The many, worrisome showdowns on the part of the BLM against protestors and landowners (1 death) in Nevada and Oregon, equivalent to managerial incompetence-
- The well-documented failures of the TSA's screening effectiveness on the part of Homeland Security, equivalent to a lack of managerial oversight-
- The pattern of nominating Supreme Court justices considered from only a minority pool of judges, equivalent to political insistence-
- The worrisome promotion of Susan Rice as a part of the national security apparatus come hell-or-high-water when declined confirmation of ambassador to the United Nations, equivalent to political indifference-
- Hillary Rodham Clinton's State Department, equivalent to there just isn't enough writing space in the universe via the English language to cover all the insolent, indignant, infuriating, irreverent, irresponsible, irregardful, incompetent, inept actions on her part.
The exposure of an increase in hospital wait times on the part of Veterans Administration was not exactly exemplary either, but this author will not lay the blame at the feet of General Shinseki for inefficiencies at an agency that has been too unwieldy and bureaucratic for too long.
However, the one element all of the previously mentioned has in common was a focus on the part of President Obama to make appointees based solely on their minority, ethnic standing first and qualifications second.
Intelligence failed men who should know better
For this author's part and in the interest of full-disclosure, I had high hopes for President Obama. He rode in on a wave of national positivity given the reasons that came out as to why the U.S. really went to Iraq thanks to one Richard Cheney. The first four years of Obama's administration were reflective of a man who of course is very smart graduating Harvard Law, but had no real-world, practical, working experience. He put faith in some picks who might show him the way; a wise choice for Joe Biden as V.P.
but poor talent-assessment in a SecState choice.
For all of POTUS Trump's faults, he had the wherewithal to fire General Flynn for lying when his predecessor had fired him for telling the truth. Perhaps General Flynn was despondent enough from his ouster that when a candidate-elect came along who has a reverence for all things military, the general's sincere, effusive praise and support lent themselves to the President's overdeveloped sense of reward via loyalty.
Both men should have known better if not all three. President Obama should have made better adjustments, not worse during his second term. General Flynn should not have felt so comfortable from his past and in his potential, future positions to be philandering around with the likes of Russia and Turkey. They both screwed up. At least POTUS Trump fired the man due to a lack of integrity as opposed to POTUS Obama firing him due to a lack of complicity.
